Why You Should Be a GuerillaReader

Melinda Palacio

Last week, Bronwyn Mauldin sent me a link to Guerilla Reads No. 80, my reading at the Pasadena Lit Fest. I first met Bronwyn four years ago, when she filmed several authors at the Latino Book Author Festival and Cal State Los Angeles in 2008, a year after she started GuerillaReads, an online zine. The generous founder of GuerillaReads answered several questions for La Bloga. Add your name to the GuerillaReads roster and learn how to submit your own videos. It's fun. Look for my GuerillaReads videos 26, 44, and 80.

 

Bronwyn filming GuerillaReader Abu Zabair. Photo by Melissa Wall

MAP: When and where did you film your first video and what gave you the idea to start filming and what has kept you going all these ? years? 

BM: GuerrillaReads is the online video literary journal. It's 5 years old, and I've just posted our 82nd video. The very first video was of author Cheryl Klein, who helped me launch the site. 

My original idea for GuerrillaReads came from conversations I was having with the Future of Publishing Think Tank. We're a group of independent writers, publishers, booksellers and literary arts organizations who were getting together occasionally to talk about how technology and the economy were making dramatic changes for everyone in the literary world. Rather than wring our hands about those changes as many people were doing back then, we wanted to figure out how we could harness the power of change to benefit literature and grow the literary ecology, especially in Southern California. 

I believe authors need to get out from behind our computers and bring our work to the real world, if we're going to stay relevant. At the same time, we need to be online, since that's where so many people are hanging out. GuerrillaReads is an attempt to bring those two ideas together. Take your work to unexpected places: read aloud in a park, on a bus or from the top of a building. Video that act of literature and share it with the world online.

MAP: What was the most difficult video to film and do you have a favorite?

BM: No favorites! I love all my guerrilla readers equally. 

One of the hardest shoots I've done was a couple of years ago at the West Hollywood Book Fair when the temperature must have topped 100 degrees. It's just too hot to read and too hot to shoot in that kind of weather, but we did it anyway and made some great videos. 

One of my favorite shoots was the GuerrillaReads Video Walk in Highland Park. A group of us met up and walked through the streets, stopping periodically to record each other's guerrilla readings. I really need to do another one of those again soon. Or maybe some of La Bloga's readers can organize a video walk of their own. 

MAP: You have detailed instructions on your website for authors to upload their own videos. Are these instructions based on your own troubleshooting of your videos?

BM: Yes, those instructions are a mix of research and lessons learned the hard way. I've discovered that the most important piece of equipment for video is actually a microphone. Which surprised me, but it actually makes sense, since I want people to hear the words and the sounds of the author's voice. 

GuerrillaReads intentionally has a very DIY aesthetic. I like to think of it as an online 'zine. You don't have to make a video that would win at Cannes. You should make a video that is immediate and real, and lets your writing shine.  

MAP: What is your day job?

BM: I've got a terrific day job as Research and Evaluation Manager at the LA County Arts Commission. I like to think of myself as a cultural worker by day, cultural creator at night and on the weekends. 

MAP: Are you originally from Los Angeles?

BM: No, I've lived in a number of places in the US and traveled to almost 50 countries. Los Angeles is home now. 

MAP: You don't make money off of your video magazine. Why is this such a labor of love? Or do you get donations to maintain your costs?

BM: I don't make any money from GuerrillaReads, except when someone buys a t-shirt. That money goes right back into improving the quality of my equipment. 

For me, this is about promoting and connecting writers, especially the not-yet-famous. There are so many great writers out there writing good, great and fabulous books, I want to help them shine. I also want to get writers comfortable with technology, and help them utilize it to promote themselves. The side benefit is that I get to meet so many writers. 

MAP: What are your goals and dreams for guerrilla reads? Is there anything you'd like to change?

BM: In the long run, I want writers to be out there making more of their own videos and sending them to me. I love meeting writers and shooting their videos, but I can't reach everyone. If you're a writer, pull out your phone or your camera a shoot a quick video of yourself reading. Get a friend to help. You may be surprised how easy it is. 

Then post your video to YouTube or Vimeo and send it to me. I want to see your work! 

MAP: What about your own writing?

BM: I write fiction, and you can find a couple of my short stories on my website (http://bronwynmauldin.com). You can see a couple of my own guerrilla readings on the site. The real challenge is balancing my literary time between GuerrillaReads and doing my own writing. 

MAP: Is there anything else you'd like to tell La Bloga?

BM: If you're nervous about reading your work aloud or being on video, you're in good company. A lot of us writers do our best communicating alone, on a keyboard or with paper and pen. Set aside your worries and give it a try, do a little guerrilla reading and see how it goes. You might actually find the experience liberating. 

If you're a writer who loves to read in front of an audience, then what are you waiting for? Send me your work! 

***

You might wonder why I am posting on Monday. Daniel wanted to trade and he will be back next week on Monday. Last week was a big week for me with four poems accepted: Three in Blue Lyra and one in the Naugatuck River Review, my GuerillaReads video went online thanks to Bronwyn, my poetry book is mentioned in Cosmopolitan Latina, along with several other winners at the International Latino Book Awards, and Thelma Reyna writes a generous review of How Fire Is a Story, Waiting on Hinchas de Poesia, No. 10.

 

Award-Winning Latino Books for Your Summer Bag

BY ERASMO GUERRA

Central Time: En Medio de Todo

Nebraska-- "en medio de todo en el Norte"

by Amelia M.L. Montes (ameliamontes.com)

Where is Lincoln, Nebraska?  This is the question people ask when they find out where I live.  They’ve asked when I am back “home” in California, when I am at a conference, when I am traveling in many other states.  

Storm Clouds in Nebraska

I patiently explain that the state of Nebraska is surrounded by six states:  Wyoming and Colorado to the west, South Dakota to the north, Iowa and Missouri to the east, and Kansas to the south.

I admit that until I moved here, my own geographic knowledge of the Midwest was vague or simply nonexistent.  I remember years ago teaching a class about geography and asking the students:  “How do you know how to get anywhere or where a certain geographic place is?”  
They looked at me blankly and said:  “I just go to the bus or airport sign that says where I need to go.”  "But aren’t you curious," I asked.  "Don’t you want to look at a map?  How can I help you become not only curious, but passionately curious about geographic spaces?"

The Platte River of Nebraska

Years later, I met a former student who told me she had listened to what I said.  She had made sure to travel, to live and work in various places in the U.S. and the world, to understand other people, communities, other perspectives. She had become enamored with maps and the history of places, the migration of people including herself and her family. 

The Sandhills in Nebraska

This is connected to another story.  Some people, like my former student, can travel and work in other places by choice, and some people must travel in order to find work.  The surge in migration of Chicanas and Chicanos, Latinas and Latinos in the Midwest has been significant.  Lexington, Nebraska and West Liberty, Iowa are just two examples of small rural towns who changed almost overnight in population because of the kind of jobs available (usually meat packing). These towns were dying towns, small rural fading spots on the map, now revitalized and growing.  Click here for information on Lexington, Nebraska and click here for information on West Liberty, Iowa. 

Last week I was at The University of Iowa working with an amazing group of Latina and Latino Scholars, working on chapters that will be part of an anthology, Latinos in the Midwest.  This project began with three scholars at The University of Iowa:  Professors Claire Fox, Omar Valerio-Jiménez, and Santiago Vaquera-Vásquez (Professor Vaquera-Vasquez is now at the University of New Mexico but still a member of this consortium).  We are creating an anthology that will place a wide lens as well as a careful focus on the history, communities, testimonios, cultural trends, (past and present), of Latinos in the Midwest. (CLICK HERE for a list of the scholars who are pictured below and included are descriptions of our work.)

Latino Scholars at The University of Iowa Obermann Center for  Advanced Studies

A number of us have come to this work not because we were born and raised here. The majority of us come from the west coast, southwest and eastern areas of the U.S.  We have come here because there is a need.  The population of Latinos has soared and the necessity for scholarship regarding our U.S. Latinidad in the Midwest is great.  Two scholars in our group, however, were indeed born and raised in the Midwest: Professors Theresa Delgadillo, and Lilia Fernández.  Theresa was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and now is Associate Professor at The Ohio State University where she teaches Chicana/Chicano and Latina/Latino literatures.  

Professor Delgadillo's first book, Spiritual Mestizaje:  Religion, Gender, Race, and Nation in Contemporary Chicana Narrative (Duke UP, 2011), focused on reading representations of religion and changing ideas about religion and spirituality in borderlands Chicana literature and documentary film.  Of late, she has completed a second book (and now under review), entitled Telling Latina Lives:  Oral Histories from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  She also has an article on Latino and Latina Literature in the Midwest and one on photography/popular history books on Latinas and Latinos in the Midwest.  The two articles are (1) "The Ideal Immigrant" in Aztlan:  A Journal of Chicano Studies, 36/1 (2011): 37-67; (2) "Exiles, Migrants, Settlers, and Natives:  Literary Representations of Chicano/as and Mexicans in the Midwest" in Midwest Miscellany XXX (2002): 27-45 (republication of and also available online as JSRI Occasional Paper No. 64. East Lansing, MI: The Julian Samora Research Institute, Michigan State University, 1999. 1-11).  

Associate Professor Theresa Delgadillo

And Dr. Lilia Fernandez who also is teaching at The Ohio State University but in the History Department, has recently published Brown in the Windy City:  Mexican and Puerto Ricans in Postwar Chicago (The University of Chicago Press, 2012).  She is a Chicago native.  David G. Gutiérrez, History Professor at University of California, San Diego writes of her book:  "A work of striking originality, scope, and nuance, Brown in the Windy City provides the most comprehensive treatment of the entwined histories of ethnic Mexicans and Puerto Ricans in Chicago.  Meticulously researched and beautifully written, Fernandez's study marks a major intervention in the history of race and racialization, urban history, and interdisciplinary Latino studies scholarship."  

Associate Professor, Lilia Fernandez

Delgadillo's and Fernandez' research and writings are important markers for Latinos in the Midwest—revealing that Chicanas and Chicanos/Latinas and Latinos have been here not recently, but for multiple generations thus significantly creating the Midwest as it is today. 

Last night I thought of all the scholars I worked with last week as I was watching the “super” moon:  a full bright orb.  I knew that millions of other people on this earth were looking, photographing, discussing last night’s moon.  My friends in many Midwestern states were commenting on the moon’s brilliance via twitter and Facebook.  Later (here in the Midwest) we had thunderstorms.  They remind me of summer in Coahuila, Guanajuato, Oaxaca.  Mexico.  Mexico is on central time.  So is the Midwest.  We are CENTRAL.  En medio de todo. 

Amelia Montes on "tiempo central" with el super moon

Super Moon on July 22, 2013

Acuña interview. Lit and news bits.

by RudyG

Interview with graphic novelist Ricardo Acuña

Last month I previewed The Realm by Ricardo Acuña, a Chicano screenwriter who blazed a trail of turning it into a graphic novel via a successful Kickstarter campaign. The book has received good reviews, like the one below from Latin Horror:

"Ricardo Lira Acuña's first illustrated novel combines fantastical Mexican folkloric traditions with the American pulp graphic genre for a visually stunning and suspenseful read. A thief searching for buried gold must overcome his greed in order to escape from a Mexican ghost town.

"The Realm is a suspenseful 82-page graphic novel chock full of stunning black & white illustrations that evokes a strong and palpable sense of nostalgia that crosses the borders of both golden eras of American and Mexican comic book landscapes and creates a new hybrid."

Go here to read the full review.

Acuña obliged us by giving us an interview. He's got lessons for those thinking of using the Kickstarter approach.

RudyG: Now that you've had time to think about it since finishing The Realm, what would you say that you haven't said before?

Acuña: On the surface, The Realm is a treasure hunt ghost story. But there are layers, metaphors and commentary about Chicano/Mexican history and politics, and the philosophical underpinning for existential horror. If all you want is a quick escape or bedtime story, it's there. If you want to dig deeper, it's there too.

RudyG: If you had anything to do over, is there anything you would have changed about the novel, the characters, the plot, the graphics, etc.?

Acuña: As a writer, I rewrite. So I've thought of things I'd tweak here and there. But in general, estoy feliz y satisfecho with the way the book turned out. Sure, I could've put out a full color comic book in a series with muscle-bound illustrations, but I couldn't afford it even if I wanted that. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that this story had to be in black and white and that Stan Timmons' old school drawings should bring to mind the Mexican semanales (weekly pulp fiction), like the kind my mother used to read when I was growing up. The trick though has always been how to tell this story in a balanced way, with Twilight Zone structure and suspense and yet have grind-house moments a la Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino.

RudyG: What kind of responses are you getting for the book? And is there an Hijo de Realm in your future?

Acuña: I just released it, and fans are telling me how much they love the graphics and the story itself. I'm curious to see how it fares with different audiences--Latin@s, comic book fans, diehard horror to name a few. It won't be everybody's cup of cafe. It's dark, gritty, and, Dios forbid, will make you think.

The Realm actually began as a script when I was at Columbia. I've had interest in it, but this is Hollywood, so you better know somebody and you better have money. I didn't have either. So I figured it made sense to convert it into a graphic novel as the story lent itself perfectly to the medium. And now, I have something that producers and companies can hold in their hands and look at. I also have a product and a credit which I didn't before.

The endgame for The Realm is to make it into a film. I fantasize about raising enough funds to shoot the film myself with a skeleton crew throughout abandoned haciendas in Zacatecas. As for Hijo del Realm, I'm thinking about a series with some of the characters returning with more ghost stories and cursed places.

RudyG: Now that you've got a Kickstarter under your belt, what surprised you the most or was the hardest to deal with?

Acuña: The most difficult for me was getting the Kickstarter perks fulfilled, which is something I'm still finishing up right now. I didn't plan on how long it would take to get printed copies and the other perks prepared.  I took much longer than I should have in delivering my perks. There's always pressure to get something done, but there's more pressure when other people's money is involved.

RudyG: Would you do it again anytime soon?

Acuña: A huevo! Maybe another Kickstarter campaign for the film?

RudyG: What advice do you have for gente trying the Kickstarter route for the first time?

Acuña: Kickstarter requires a helluva lot of preparation before launching your campaign in terms of what exactly you're going to use the money towards and what the perks will be. Kickstarter has a tutorial before you start with recommendations. Go over it many times. Follow their recommendations. Then plan, plan, plan! I got the most response from family and friends of course, but I was pleasantly surprised to get funding from total strangers. In retrospect, I wish I had personally contacted every person on my list in asking for funding. I sent mass e-mails and social media messages, but what paid off most was the personal contact. Updates are important, and I wish had sent out more of them to keep people in the loop. Get people to help you get the word out, and to help before, during and after the campaign. I went it at solo and feel I could've accomplished more in terms of raising funds and getting my perks out sooner had I sought the help.

RudyG: Tell our readers about your next big project and other great stuff you want to get to.

Acuña: I write in various forms. I have two collections of poetry and photography. I just finished my first novel - Prodigal Son, about a poor Chicano who earns a scholarship to a private East Coast boarding school. I'm working concurrently on the film script for the book and editing both. Not sure which will get made first.

RudyG: What writers influenced you most?

Acuña: I grew up listening to ghost stories from my familia in Mexico. Watched a lot of horror films and The Twilight Zone. These influenced my writing The Realm. Also, books like Gabriel García Márquez's Eréndira, Carlos Fuentes' Aura and especially Carlos Castaneda's The Teachings of Don Juan. When I heard there was a book about peyote and sorcery in Mexico, I said to myself, I gotta read that book!

RudyG: You lived in Denver, but I don't remember seeing your ass in any of my bars. Where'd you hang out and what did you love best, if anything.

Acuña: I was only in Denver for about a year. My ex and I didn't know anybody, and we were poor with students loans and didn't go out much. What I loved best was meeting Cynthia Gonzales (Corky's youngest daughter) and Thia Gonzales (Corky's niece). They took us right in with their family and friends and showed us around. But then my ex dumped me, chale, and I headed to LA. But when I return to Denver, Rudy, I wanna go hang out with you at your bars!

If you want to check it out, you can purchase the soft cover here. Purchase the eBook here or from ITunes.

Two of La Bloga's favorite authors

San Antonio Express-News reviews Our Lost Border: Essays on Life amid the Narco-Violence, edited by Sarah Cortez and Sergio Troncoso (Arte Publico Press):

“Cortez and Troncoso are to be credited for assembling an exceptional array of contributors, encompassing professors, poets, students and journalists. 

They each eloquently and powerfully profile the border in both qualitative and quantitative terms — clearly fueled by strong personal and professional experiences….”

Go here to the great review.

Respect Our Youth: Community Walk & Potluck

Poder Santa Barbara - Todo Poder al Pueblo!

Saturday, July 13, 2013


1:00pm - 4:00pm


Come join us in Ortega Park, Santa Barbara, California, to learn about what is the real purpose of a gang injunction and also come educate others in the community. We need positive solutions rather than punishing our youth. We don't need another Jim Crow laws in our liberal and progressive society!

        

Our current priority as a coalition is to challenge the proposed City gang injunction filed and endorsed by the: The City of Santa Barbara, The Santa Barbara Police Department, The District Attorneys, and The City Council.

        

The City of SB has not provided space for any community input, debate, or participation. This procedure is non-Democratic and we are demanding transparency!

        

STOP RACIAL PROFILING, STOP WASTING TAX MONEY, STOP SEPARATING FAMILIES AND STOP OPPRESSING YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIVES

Come join us to fight injustices! Injunctions are “a modern-day apartheid.”

Chican@pedia

The Mexican-American Encyclopedia is a database with biographies, videos, photos and digital collections that were made by or inspired by Mexican-Americans.

Our mission: It is our goal that the content posted in the Chican@pedia helps ANYONE that wants to research or is interested in topics were Mexican-Americans have or have had influence.

The Mexican-American Encyclopedia is a resourceful site for individuals, families, schools and organizations that are interested in the Mexican-Americans and the Chicano/a culture. Go here for more info.

Lisa Alvarado news

Casi-Bloguista Lisa's essay, Light Sleeper, will be featured in Memoir magazine's 13th issue this September. 

Es todo, hoy,

RudyG

¡Tacolandia and CicLAvia on Sunday, June 23rd!

So much is going on this Sunday for your taste buds and your health!

◙ Tacolandia: The LA Weekly is very excited to announce its first annual Tacolandia where Angelenos (and friends) may celebrate our city’s favorite food – tacos! The LA Weekly’s extraordinary summer taco fest will include a selection of over 30 taco creators from Los Angeles and Orange County and even a few all the way from Baja. There will also be music, a tequila garden, and so much more!

Bill Esparza

All this will be curated by the World’s First Tacorazzo, Bill Esparza. If you don’t know Bill, he is a self-described pro-musician who started the Street Gourmet L.A. blog and became a leading authority on Latin cuisines. He’s written for newspapers, magazines, and has appeared on TV as a guide and a host. Bill consults for restaurants, media, and corporations, and he has traveled all over Mexico, Central America, and South America.

WHEN: June 23, noon to 5:00 p.m.

WHERE: The Hollywood Palladium parking lot, 6215 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90028

COST: Check out pricing at official website

◙ CicLAvia: No cars, open streets and the opportunity to explore one of the most legendary boulevards in Los Angeles by foot, bike, skates or other non-motorized transport marks the June 23 CicLAvia – Iconic Wilshire Boulevard… the most walkable CicLAvia route ever!

Wilshire Boulevard was first carved out as a long path through a barley field in 1895. While its beginnings were humble, this path has transformed into one of the most notable boulevards in all of the United States.

From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on CicLAvia day, participants can stroll through a snapshot of the city’s architectural evolution from Victorian vision to modernist experimentation; massive towers of business to intimate houses of worship; world class museums to mercados.

The CicLAvia – Iconic Wilshire Boulevard route will connect One Wilshire in Downtown Los Angeles to Fairfax Avenue along Miracle Mile. These two anchor hubs will feature pedestrian zones with performers, activities sponsored by several fantastic museums, programming by some of our community partners, food trucks and more. Additional hubs along the route include MacArthur Park, Koreatown and Mid-Wilshire.

The day will also include a series of free, downloadable stories about Wilshire Boulevard by noted architecture and culture writer and critic Edward Lifson, “The Modernist's Guide to Wilshire Boulevard” by Catherine Gudis and designed by Colleen Corcoran, a family friendly workshop inspired by the Googie-centric geometry of the 1950s with artist Marni Gittleman, and more. CicLAvia is open to the public and free of charge. Registration is not required and there is no starting or ending point along the route. CicLAvia – Iconic Wilshire Boulevard offers six miles of car-free, open streets and participants can join the fun at any point along the route.

IN OTHER NEWS…

My novel, The Book of Want (University of Arizona Press), is now available on Kindle! Here’s what a few of the critics said about my little book:

“Olivas’s brand of magical realism has a sense of humor about itself, and he succeeds in harnessing the genre’s unique ability to expose what’s beneath the surface.” —Los Angeles Magazine

“A fantastic short novel chronicling the lives of a family just like any other gabacho clan—except it’s Mexican and its matriarch visits from the other side.” —Gustavo Arellano, author of ¡Ask a Mexican! column

“The lives of a Mexican-American family living in Los Angeles unfold in surprising, sometimes delightful ways in Olivas’s debut novel (after story collection Anywhere But L.A.). Olivas’s approach to the novel resembles his approach to the collection; he resists following characters with regularity or predictability ... Olivas’s strands work their discreet charm....” —Publishers Weekly

Chicanonautica: The Mysterious Doctora Luna and High Aztech

by Ernest Hogan

Contrary to what some of my fellow Arizonans believe, there is a difference between Mexican and Chicano. There’s also a difference between Chicano in California, and Arizona, and other parts of Aztlán. What kinda Spanglish da your familia hablan, ese? 

This was something I needed to deal with in writing High Aztech. I couldn’t just do the same Chicano sci-fi that I did in Cortez on Jupiter. I had to get into a Mexico City state of mind, call up memories of my mind-altering visits there, and more: I made a point of reading books, magazines, and newspapers from Mexico -- and yeah, I dusted off mis historietas -- tuned into a lot of  TV from Mexico and local Spanish-language radio.

This was back when they were trying to establish an English Only law in Arizona. Did these people realize that in the Metro Phoenix Area radio waves carrying the Spanish language was constantly passing through their bodies, jiggling their DNA? Maybe a religion virus wasn’t necessary . . .

I made a point of tuning into a Spanish station while writing High Aztech. Get the rhythm of la idoma as well as the music dancing in my synapses, absorbing songs lyrics, DJ chatter, news, and occasionally, something truly different.

I forget the station, but now and then there would be an echoing countdown: “Diez . . . nueve . . . ocho . . . siete . . . seis . . . cinco . . . cuatro . . . tres . . . dos . . . uno . . .”

Then I would hear sci-fi blast-off sound effects, and a male announcer would announce that Doctora Luna was on the air. He invited the listeners to call in for advice on heath, spiritual matters, and amor!

The first time I listened carefully, and was shocked buy what I heard, or rather didn’t hear.

Doctora Luna had a radio show, but her voice was never heard. She was only “on the air” in the sense of being available to take calls, off air. I assumed that this was probably because the nature of her advice had less to do with medical science than with a kind of curanderismo.

The FCC probably has regulations against broadcasting such things. Maybe it’s better that I don’t remember that station.

During her program the countdown and solicitation for calls was repeated, then they would alternately play two different Spanish translations of the song Love Potion No. 9: Poción de Amor, and Bola de Cristal.

Repetitious? Sure, but it was weird, just the sort of weirdness that slammed my brain into the world of High Aztech.

Doctora Luna was a big help in writing High Aztech. She also inspired my story “Doctora Xilbalba’s Datura Enema.”

Doctora, I would like to thank you. You probably have good reasons for protecting your identity like Zorro, the Lone Ranger, and the enmascarados de lucha libre. I hope that you are still out there, working that magic.

I also remember that my Spanish got pretty damn good back then. I should do it again. In fact, I wrote this while listening to an Austin TexMex station via iTunes.

Ernest Hogan is surprised to report that more people are buying High Aztech for $0.99 than getting it for free using coupon code TV57H on Smashwords. If you want to get it for free, hurry, the deal’s only until August 2. Meanwhile, he’s looking forward to seeing some reviews.